komitativitást

Komitativitás, or comitativity, is a grammatical category that marks accompaniment, indicating that another participant accompanies the action or state. It answers questions such as “with whom?” and is realized in diverse ways across languages, by case endings, postpositions, or affixes attached to noun phrases.

In Hungarian, komitativitás is typically expressed with instrumental suffixes rather than a separate comitative case. The suffix -val/-vel attaches to the noun (and harmonizes with the preceding vowel and possessive suffix), yielding forms such as barátommal “with my friend” and nővéremmel “with my sister.”

Across languages, comitative marking can be expressed with postpositions or prepositions, as in Turkish arkadaşımla “with my friend” or Finnish ystäväni kanssa “with my friend.” Some languages maintain a dedicated comitative case, while others rely on periphrastic constructions with “with.” In practice, comitative meaning often overlaps with instrumental meaning, but they can differ in scope or emphasis depending on the linguistic system.

Usage notes include the distinction between accompaniment and means: comitative marks the presence of another participant in the social context of the action, whereas instrumental typically marks the means by which an action is performed. The exact morphology and terminology for comitativitás vary by language family and theoretical framework.